MUNICH (Reuters) -An Afghan national has admitted to purposefully driving into a crowd in the German city of Munich and authorities have determined an Islamist motive for the crime, a prosecutor said on Friday.
At least 36 people including a child were hurt on Thursday when the 24-year-old man ploughed into demonstrators gathered in the city centre, putting security back in focus before next week’s federal election.
“He has admitted that he deliberately drove into the participants of the demonstration,” prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann told a press conference.
“I’m very cautious about making hasty judgements, but based on everything we know at the moment, I would venture to speak of an Islamist motivation for the crime,” she added.
The suspected attack came hours before international leaders including U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived in the southern German city for the Munich Security Conference.
Tilmann said there was no evidence to suggest the suspect, identified as Farhad Noori, was affiliated with any Islamist or terrorist organisations.
She added that there was no indication of any accomplices, but that investigators were evaluating his communications and items obtained during searches to ascertain whether anyone had prior knowledge of the crime or was involved.
German authorities say the Afghan national arrived in Germany as an unaccompanied minor in 2016, and that he was in Germany legally with a work permit and was therefore not due to be deported. He does not have any prior convictions.
Immigration and security issues have dominated campaigning ahead of the February 23 election, especially after other violent incidents in recent weeks, with polls showing the centre-right conservatives leading followed by the far right.
(Reporting by Joern Poltz in Munich and Friederike Heine in Berlin, editing by Thomas Seythal; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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